John Higgins convincingly beaten by Robert Milkins in the third round of the Northern Ireland Open

ByEurosport

Updated 20/10/2022 at 14:19 GMT

John Higgins has surprisingly exited the Northern Ireland Open at the third round stage after losing to Robert Milkins. Higgins held a 7-4 win-loss record in the career head-to-head, but it was Milkins who won their latest encounter on a day when the Scot was making too many errors. Milkins will play Zhou Yuelong or Shaun Murphy in the third round on Thursday evening.

Milkins wins in dramatic respotted black to take 3-1 lead over Higgins

An out-of-sorts John Higgins has been knocked out of the Northern Ireland Open after losing 4-1 to Robert Milkins in the third round.

Just a day after David Grace pulled off a huge 4-3 upset victory over Ronnie O'Sullivan in the second round, another tournament favourite has gone out of the competition in the early rounds.

Milkins can look back on arguably the finest win of his career before he faces either Zhou Yuelong or Shaun Murphy in the evening session.

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He told Eurosport: "I started off alright, I made a good break in the first frame. Second frame was scrappy. John was missing lots of balls - you don't expect it - and I was tearing up and I was feeling a bit down on myself because I was missing balls. You knew he was not going to keep missing them.

"My concentration was all over the place. I should've been trying to finish the game off and it could have went the other way.

"You just don't expect it. John is so good. The fourth frame he should have got it back to two each and really he would have been looking at that at two each. He couldn't have played any worse really."

Higgins started poorly as Milkins took the first frame with a fine break of 65.

The errors continued from the four-time world champion as Milkins extended his lead by potting the brown, blue and pink to pinch the second frame.

The third was a scrappy affair but Higgins did reduce the deficit after a safety blunder from Milkins.

In the first-to-four contest Milkins moved a step closer to the third round when, after a safety error by Higgins and a missed black by 'the Milkman', the latter took the re-spotted black by driving it into the opposing centre bag after a safety duel.

In complete contrast to his high quality 4-3 win over Jackson Page on Tuesday, Higgins was looking very uncomfortable in the Waterfront. After a tense seven minutes, Milkins slid in red and blacks to produce a break of 63 and sealed his place in the next round.

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